The present invention relates to a suspension conveyor system and more particularly to a system for conveying objects such as bobbins for spinning machines.
Such a suspension conveyor system is known from German-Offenlegungsschrift 27 40 594. In the case of the known suspension conveyor system, the conveyor means includes a cross bar extending in the direction of transport. One side of the cross bar is acted upon by a friction wheel and the opposite side of the cross bar is acted upon by a counterpressure roller. The friction wheel has its own motor and is arranged at the side of the rail path of the suspension conveyor system. Friction drives are well adapted to be used for driving conveyor means of a suspension conveyor system, since they make comparatively little noise when they are in operation, since they show little susceptibility to trouble and since they can be controlled in a reliable manner. However, the disadvantage in the case of this type of drive means is that they require a great amount of space at the side of the rails as well as a comparatively high capital expenditure. These disadvantages are particularly important in cases in which the suspension conveyor system comprises a plurality of parallel rails positioned side by side in closely spaced relationship with one another. These are the conditions existing, for example, in spinning mills where bobbins suspended from conveyor means are to be transported. The bobbins have a comparatively small diameter so that, for example, the rails used for storage tracks could be arranged in comparatively close juxtaposition so as to save space. The known friction drive is, however, too expensive and too bulky for rails extending in close juxtaposition.
This will be particularly problematic in cases in which there is no possibility of enlarging the distance between the rails in view of structural circumstances, a situation which exists, for example, in the case of rail paths extending into the interior of a ring spinning frame. The known friction drive cannot be used for this purpose.
Hence, the present invention is based on the task of providing a suspension conveyor system which is provided with a friction drive for the conveyor means and which requires little space and is economy-priced.